Allegiance To No One

Allegiance To No One

Profile:

Allegiance To No One formed in the early '80's in Southend and were based around the nucleus of Andy Brown on Guitar and Mike Wallace on Vocals. They had a brief tenure under the moniker of 'Sandy & The Wheelchairs', and had a temporary drummer called Turtle, but once Danny came in on Drums and Nick from Lasky's came in on Bass, they felt the name 'Allegiance To No One' reflected their take on things far better. Influenced by Classic '77 style punk bands such as The Damned, their stated aim was to write tunes and put thought into the lyrics, covering subjects such as War, Media, Drugs, American Dominance, and lighter style songs about Dallas and The Royal Family.
These aims led to a set of songs with titles such as 'Palitoy Boy', 'War Theatre', 'Prince Charles Has Got VD', 'American Trash', 'Allegiance to No One' and 'Who the F*** are Genesis?'. Andy, Mike, Nick and Danny set out to play as many gigs as possible, and played some classic shows with The Kronstadt Uprising at 'Sid's' and the Zero 6, as well as headlining at local venues like The Focus Centre and The Cliff Hotel. A key local show was with Attila The Stockbroker + local poet Ian of Nazareth (aka Skinner Malive). They also managed to start playing further afield, and played with The Lost Cherrees in Brixton and The Subhumans in Stratford, amongst others. After a few years together however, by 1984 things were in need of a change, and to this end Danny and Nick departed, with Danny going on to play in Steve Hooker's Shakers. Around this time, Guy came in on Drums, and John Edwards of The Sinyx came in on Bass. This line up proved to be very solid, enabling the band to concentrate on writing newer songs.

Allegiance To No One - Andy, Guy, Mike & John - Live at The Pink Toothbrush 1985Not long after the line-up change, the band put out their own 11 track demo, including such titles as 'Nymphomaniac', 'Wages of War, 'She's Obese', 'But it's Impossible' and 'A.I.D.S.' Speaking to the local press at the time, Andy said "As far as our musical direction is concerned, we are moving away from the "thrash" approach to more involved songs'.
The band continued playing and played a lot of local concerts, often with bands such as The Burning Idols and The Armless Teddies, as well as further afield, where they would often hire a coach to bring their followers along. As their sound progressed, they even got in backing singers 'The Fabulous Desparettes' to fill out the songs and help on more complex songs such as 'Tonight Won't You Be My Baby' and 'Do the Perado'. Andy told the Evening Echo at the time "The new image will hopefully be useful because we will now be easily recognisable so people can buy us drinks and we can give more autographs." After several years with the band however, Mike took the decision to step back and John's partner Mandy took over on Vocals. This ultimately led to a name change and the band called themselves The Cat Jugglers and they continued into the early '90's with this line up.
Like many bands of the era, they eventually petered by the early '90's, although they did manage to get a track on the Indigo Blue Records compilation 'The Best of The Rest'. They also had quite a prodigious output of songs, and they managed to record many of them on Andys 4-Track home studio and there are plans to release them one day.